61–70 of 119 posts
Do we have evidence that declawing causes lasting pain or psychological damage to the cat? I admittedly have no idea how’d you’d test this in an animal—but it seems like it should be a prerequisite to banning the procedure.
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Why not wait until they're adults and they can consent to the procedure?
In addition to what the others have said, it's less painful and easier to have done when younger. This is like saying parents shouldn't be allowed to make kids go to school, they should wait until they're old enough to make the decision themselves. Sometimes parents need to make a decision for their children, it's only logical.
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> I'm actually somewhat torn on this one. At face value, I fully agree. More, none of my cats have been declawed, as I just don't see the point. > That said, I also don't buy the mutilation argument at face value. We literally castrated all of our male cats, and nobody bats an eye. Indeed, you seem to be frowned upon if you don't. Surely that is as mutilating to a male cat as losing a knuckle? At least castration has…
Castration is a bit of a brute force for population control. No reason we couldn't also give cats vasectomies. For the other, are there actual numbers on what that means for cats? Feels like an appeal to emotion, as much as anything else. Outdoor cats, I would presume, are far more likely to die from a car than from anything they can protect themselves from with front claws. And again. I actually support the idea her…
Male un-neutered cats, somewhat like some of their human un-neutered counterparts, are prone to aggressive, overly sexual, and territorial behaviour (including spraying). Likely fine on on an outdoor farm cat, but probably not what you want for a pet who lives in your house.
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Castration is a bit of a brute force for population control. No reason we couldn't also give cats vasectomies. For the other, are there actual numbers on what that means for cats? Feels like an appeal to emotion, as much as anything else. Outdoor cats, I would presume, are far more likely to die from a car than from anything they can protect themselves from with front claws. And again. I actually support the idea her…
> Castration is a bit of a brute force for population control. No reason we couldn't also give cats vasectomies. Male un-neutered cats, somewhat like some of their human un-neutered counterparts, are prone to aggressive, overly sexual, and territorial behaviour (including spraying). Likely fine on on an outdoor farm cat, but probably not what you want for a pet who lives in your house.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm actually somewhat torn on this one. At face value, I fully agree. More, none of my cats have been declawed, as I just don't see the point. > That said, I also don't buy the mutilation argument at face value. We literally castrated all of our male cats, and nobody bats an eye. Indeed, you seem to be frowned upon if you don't. Surely that is as mutilating to a male cat as losing a knuckle? At least castration has…
Castration, as opposed to just a vasectomy, helps with behavioural issues as well. And it's not just "making the cat tamer", but male cats get in fights with other cats more often if not castrated.
I'm sympathetic, in that without this many people would not want or be able to keep male cats. But I'm not sure I have a logical leg to stand on to say this is acceptable, but that declawing is not.
Not a cat owner, so actually curious: I have a friend cat who always scratches me, which is quite painful and leaves marks. Is there a way to trim the nails so this doesn't happen, or is the only solution to avoid the cat?
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This really isn’t the forum for a religious discussion, but I have to say I’ve never understood this part. If you disengage Judaism from ethnicity to be purely a religion then, assuming freedom of religion, shouldn’t it be down to the child to make that decision at some point when society deems them capable of making a decision on their own (typically 16)?
Do you let your child decide if he should brush his teeth?
Do we have evidence that declawing causes lasting pain or psychological damage to the cat? I admittedly have no idea how’d you’d test this in an animal—but it seems like it should be a prerequisite to banning the procedure.
Declawing often introduces other behavioural problems (biting, soiling outside the cat box) which are usually a sign of your cat not liking the situation.
Castration is for the male cat a smaller operation, and usually fixes problems and gives you a happier less aggressive cat with an increased tendency to gain weight.
Behaviour problems in cats are usually because they are not stimulated enough, and declawing them will hide the scratching problem but will sometimes introduce other problems that are harder to fix.
Veterinarians should really propose other solutions first such as activelt working with your cats behaviour. In the end it will probably give you a happier cat.
I would argue that aggressiveness in the male cat is a different kind of behaviour. It is a natural behaviour, of course, but it is not easily changed, and it is also not a behaviour that makes your cat happy.
To summarize: castrating a cat is a good way to get a happier calmer and slightly fatter cat. Declawing is usually done to prevent a either a natural behaviour or a sign that your cat is unhappy. It commonly leads to other behavioural problems that are even harder to fix.
One is a path to a happy cat, one is to sweep a problem under the rug.
I am of course coloured by where I live: declawing has been outlawed for quite some time and even before that it was considered animal abuse by most.
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> Castration is a bit of a brute force for population control. No reason we couldn't also give cats vasectomies. Male un-neutered cats, somewhat like some of their human un-neutered counterparts, are prone to aggressive, overly sexual, and territorial behaviour (including spraying). Likely fine on on an outdoor farm cat, but probably not what you want for a pet who lives in your house.
This feels awfully close to the argument that cats with claws cause damage. Specifically indoor cats, that will never have to defend themselves from anything.
I believe the morality laws around surgery on pets are something like “It’s ok to perform surgery on pets as long as your intent is to inflict psychological damage; so as to break their will and make the animal more domesticated, but it’s not ok if it’s purely cosmetic”.
Don’t question the laws man.
As a veterinarian I feel a bit ashamed that veterinary surgeons are actually working against the law. In Germany I don't even know when this was outlawed, but nobody here would even think that is possible. I don't buy the euthanasia or abandonment argument at all.
In Germany it is forbidden to euthanize animals for lack of resources or will to keep it. People often have to pay shelters to take their animals, and if they just abandon them somewhere, they may get fined or even prosecuted.
In general, Germans tend to ask shelters first, when trying to acquire a dog, cats also. It has gotten so far that shelters have more applicants than dogs they can give them, and the dogs which stay in shelters are not suited to an average dog owner (behavior, size, medical issues). We even import thousands of street/shelter dogs from all over Europe.
Cats unfortunately are too plentiful. There are always some feral/semi-feral populations who haven't been neutered. Shelters keep them, but they will often stay all their life there.
And of course, not all of the US is comparable to Germany in many regards. In Germany there aren't a lot of sparsely populated areas, and the animal protection laws are a lot tougher.